Giving Zakaat to pay a person’s debts.
Q. Can someone pay a debt from zakat or sadaqat money without letting the person know who paid for it, or do you have to give the money in the person’s hand, the reason because by giving the money in the person’s hand, he may use it other ways.
A. The Fuqaha (jurists) have stated that while giving Zakaat, one is required to make the deserving recipient the owner of the Zakaat. Based on this it means that you will have to give the indebted person the Zakaat (upon which he becomes the owner) and then he will pay his debts.
And Allah knows best.
Mufti Waseem Khan